Author: VD

In case anyone is up late tonight, I’ll be appearing on a radio show called AMERICA AT NIGHT with ERNIE BROWN at 11 PM Pacific time to discuss today’s column. One myth I’d particularly like to debunk is the notion that the global jihad is somehow opposed to democracy. It’s a ludicrous notion. The United States is actually the party actively opposed to democracy, curently in Iraq as well as previously in Algeria.

If you want to listen, it appears there is a streaming broadcast on Newstalk 1530 KFBK. Thanks, DaVinci, for finding that out.

From the Star Tribune: John Petters, 21, of Wayzata was stabbed to death Saturday in Florence after he and the woman he was with followed another woman through a gate and into the park of her villa as she returned home from a nightclub, a Florence prosecutor said…. The 27-year-old woman whom Petters and his friend followed through the gate told them they should not be there. When they didn’t leave, she called her father, who tried to make them leave before pulling out a knife and stabbing Petters around 4:30 a.m., Caleca said. Petters and his friend “didn’t understand Italian,” and the alleged attacker and his daughter spoke Italian during the confrontation because they didn’t realize the intruders were Americans, he said.

What a stupid waste. It reminds me of when a Japanese kid was blown away trying to go to a Halloween party at the wrong house. I’ve lived overseas enough to be well-practiced in spotting idiot tourists, or as I’ve heard them called, the white-shoes, but this was just so unnecessary. Obviously, most idiot tourism isn’t fatal, but here’s a few basic pointers to make one’s European trip a little more pleasant for everyone – not that anyone is planning one after last Thursday’s bombings.

1. Bring at least $50 of money for each country you’re planning on traveling through. If your expat friends wanted to run a bank, they’d have started one. And no, you can’t always find an ATM or a bank to exchange traveller’s checks.

2. Don’t wear tennis shoes. There are plenty of rubber-soled dark shoes out there. Buy a pair. And bag the jeans too. Women, wear skirts; European women tend to actually dress like women, not quasi-males. This year’s color: frosty pink.

3. It takes about half a second to cut through a belly-pouch. Why not just stamp “I’m a tourist, rob me” on your forehead instead?

4. Don’t wander around a strange city at 4 in the morning. Would you wander around Detroit then? Do you know where Norway’s Detroit is? Neither do I, but I’m sure they’ve got one.

5. Learn how to say: “Hello”, “please”, “thank you” and “I’m sorry, I don’t speak X.” It’s the least you can do. It could even save your life.

6. Everyone does not, in fact, speak English.

7. Talking louder and slower does not actually help someone who doesn’t speak English understand it. CAPIREBBE PIU MEGLIO SE PARLO MOLTO LENTO? I didn’t think so.

Jonah Goldberg wonders what allies are good for: Recall Ramesh’s — and others’ — critique of Krauthammer’s AEI speech? The upshot was that Krauthammer doesn’t care enough about allies. I think the criticism was valid, but the Spanish election has me re-thinking the value of allies like Spain. I salute the courage of the Aznar Government, the Spanish troops in Iraq and no doubt countless individual Spaniards who see the war on terror for what it is. But at the end of the day it’s clear that the Spanish people were never with us. Public opinion was always against Aznar — which makes him all the more courageous — and this one attack was all it took for public opinion to have its way.

So, the question is, what good was it to have Spain as an ally at all? Yes, there was some political cover, but clearly not very much in the eyes of the “world community.” Spain’s membership in the Coalition didn’t sway any Americans to support the war who otherwise wouldn’t have. And, Spain didn’t alleviate a very significant share of the military burden. Meanwhile, if terrorists learn the lesson that blowing up a few trains will cause nations like Spain to drop out of the Coalition, that helps nobody.

In this age of peaceless Pax Americana, allies are worse than useless. They are simply illusion, political cover for American politicians who do not wish to be given the cold-shoulder at Davos and the UN. This does not mean that the very real contributions of allied troops from countries like Spain, Italy, Britain, Australia and other places are not valued, only that in a strategic sense, the position of America, upon whom the jihad has been repeatedly declared for more than two decades, is weakened by a case that is dependent in any way upon foreign approval.

The Bush administration will have to learn that the Wilsonian nation-building it is attempting in Iraq is a fool’s game and a distraction from the real war, the war that the administration is still attempting to deny, or at the very least, downplay. This is not a war of land and occupation; as usual, in the early stages the generals continue to try to fight the last war.

If something needs doing, it needs to be done. If we’ve got help, great. If not, so be it.

That is the truth of the matter.

It looks like the Spanish people are hoping that booting out the pro-American government will somehow bring them peace. But it won’t. The only thing that will end the war declared on them is the surrender of their secular government and establishment of a new, profoundly non-secular government. I don’t see them going for that.

It’s clear now that appeasement will be the first European response. When it doesn’t work, expect them to turn surprisingly savage, appallingly so by American standards.

From Debka: According to data gathered by our experts, from December 2002, three months before the US invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda began issuing a stream of fatwas designating its main operating theatres in Europe. Spain was on the list, but not the first.

1. Turkey was first. Islamic fundamentalists were constrained to recover the honor and glory of the Ottoman caliphates which were trampled by Christian forces in 1917 in the last days of World War I.

2. Spain followed. There, al Qaeda set Muslims the goal of recovering their lost kingdom in Andalusia.

3. Italy and its capital were third. Muslim fundamentalists view Rome as a world center of heresy because of the Vatican and the Pope.

4. Vienna came next because the advancing Muslim armies were defeated there in 1683 before they could engulf the heart of Europe.

This would probably be a bad time to visit Sicily, which like Spain was once Muslim territory. Note that the attacks in Turkey – there was another bombing attempt Sunday in Istanbul – demonstrate that the jihad does not see Christian crusaders as its sole enemy, but also targets secular non-Muslims, especially those who have supplanted what was formerly Islamic land governed by Islamic law. I expect that France and Britain will be on the extended list, as it was those countries that conquered the Arabia and divided it according to their desires in the early 20th century.

Where do the United States and Britain stand on al Qaeda’s time table? Its religious edicts dictate the “liberation” (by terrorism) of lands once under Muslim rule. Turkey and Spain were therefore placed ahead of London, Paris and Berlin. Israel is doubly anathemized as a Jewish state established in a country once governed by Muslims. Rome ought to come next, although the fatwas allow some flexibility to meet changing circumstances and enable al Qaeda to strike where least expected.

Rome was never Muslim territory, although there is no question that it is the heart and soul of Italy. That’s where the maximum effect would be felt, but an attack there also might violate the liberation theme. Unfortunately, we’ll probably learn how the jihad’s thought processes are working soon enough.

From the Onion: New Nietschean Diet Allows You To Eat Whatever You Fear The Most. While dieters are accustomed to exercises of will, a new English translation of Germany’s most popular diet book takes the concept to a new philosophical level. The Nietzschean diet, which commands its adherents to eat superhuman amounts of whatever they most fear, is developing a strong following in America…. Many Nietzschean dieters are reporting success, although some complain of side effects. Kansas City’s John Mencken started the diet in January. He lost 35 pounds, eight inches from his waistline, and many of his slave moralities. He also lost the love of his life, Marissa Hapsgood, who walked out on Mencken after discovering his involvement in a romantic triangle with a poet and a sculptress.

Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune writes approvingly: The Xcel Energy Center would not have been built, and St. Paul would not have gotten an NHL expansion team, if former Gov. Arne Carlson hadn’t taken the bull by the horns and told leaders in the Legislature that if they wanted any of their pet projects to pass, they had better vote for a bill funding the construction of the arena. There wasn’t any referendum to make that decision. Carlson threatened to veto 1998 education and tax bills if legislators failed to include $65 million of state funding for the $130 million St. Paul arena in a bonding bill. The city of St. Paul’s $65 million contribution came via revenue bonds.

And the only way new stadiums will be built for the Twins, Vikings and even for the Gophers football team is if Gov. Tim Pawlenty lets members of the Legislature know that he wants to get these stadium issues solved. And he should show some courage and not require any referendums.

Any questions about how government works, and for whom it is working? We certainly can’t allow those dirty little taxpayers, who don’t know a good thing when they see it, have any say in how their taxes are spent, can we.

That’s my answer to those who dismiss conspiracy theory. I firmly believe that any honest reading of history demonstrates that the Accident Theory is not even a theory, but rather a post-facto neo-teleological rationalization. The Marxian Theory is absurd, as social classes have never done anything of note, much less been the causal factor anywhere at anytime. There is instead growing doubt that class consciousness even exists, for as one staunch left-liberal friend recently lamented, even the poorest members of our society hate the estate tax since they can envision becoming wealthy themselves one day. Trans-class consciousness, perhaps? The Great Man theory is nothing but appellation mining, often with very little regard for whether the Great Man in question actually had much, if anything, to do with that for which they were supposedly a determining factor.

And yet, history is clear that from the earliest days of recorded history, groups of men have plotted and worked tirelessly to gain power over their fellow men. It’s true in every single historical epoch, in every single society I’ve ever studied, except, according to the lords of the media, our own. This defies reason, especially when one can easily find numerous examples of group activities that would meet the definition of conspiracy except for one thing: they are not hidden. The Commission on Global Governance, for example, is openly working to establish what anti-conspiracists would otherwise prefer to dismiss as the black helicopter notion of one world government. But it’s hard to deny what is proudly laid out on a web page for all to see.

There is no one grand conspiracy, instead there are thousands, intertwining, merging and battling each other for dominance as they each work towards their own goals in their own way. But one thing that is in common with all of them is that they seek power for their members. Because totalitarian power flows from the center, all of them that seek such power are drawn to things that centralize. This is why groups with absolutely nothing in common will still appear to be working as one towards establishing the United Nations as a central taxing and governing authority, since each believes that even a small amount of influence with a single global authority will be much greater than a great amount of influence in a single country.

I don’t know why this concept should be difficult to understand. We’ve seen precisely the same thing at work in the United States, as diverse special interest groups constantly push for increasing central federal power, because it is much easier to lobby one Congress instead of fifty. The same logic is at work in the EU, NAFTA and every other entity that promises to replace numerous smaller authorities with a single, larger one.

It is this common ground that tends to mislead people into thinking that the various conspiracies, or interest groups, if you prefer, are all somehow bound together. They are not, but seen from a distance, it is not hard to understand why one might be led to believe so. There is no one grand conspiracy, but there is nevertheless a meta-conspiracy that springs, ever new and refreshed, from the bottomless well of man’s lust for power over his fellow man.

Some of the gang have been taking the Austrian quiz over at Mises.org. WARNING: this isn’t your typical easy little preferences test; it’s one that actually requires a good bit of thought and a background in economics didn’t hurt either.

My score will probably come as no surprise: 100 out of 100. Naturlich, weil ich bin ein Austrian, ja? However, I did take slight exception to question 20 on the stock market, as I didn’t think that the correct answer properly reflected Austrian theory, but as it is multiple choice I went with the closest one.

Resispa, you crypto-commie, I sentence you to re-reading the first three chapters of Human Action and the introduction to Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.

UPDATE: Try to remember that the point isn’t to score as high as you can, but to see where your beliefs are and learn which school of economics they belong to. The choices are not exaggerations, they are taken directly from each school of economics. It should be easy to spot the two most extreme, for obvious reasons, but that’s not the point.

I hope Strange Semantics takes the Austrian quiz. His critique of my view of the Left demonstrates that the poor guy just has no clue what I’m talking about, as his theoretical knowledge of foundational matters appears to be nonexistent. Seriously, SS, do take the quiz. Tell me how you scored and which questions you understood. You’re a bright guy, you’ll understand some although you surely won’t grasp them all, as I doubt you could define the difference between Chicago and Keynes, much less Austria and Chicago.

But I’ll answer your question. The reason the Left is blind is that it doesn’t know its own basic theories. What is value? What is money? What is a market? What is the opportunity cost of regulation? These are elementary questions, and yet would-be Leftist political philosophers not only don’t have answers to these questions, they don’t know the answers that were provided over a hundred years ago by those who fathered the theories which laid the foundation for what they are now espousing in ignorance.

The reason I don’t have to explain these concepts, and the reason so many people reading this site understand what I’m talking about without me having to explain them, is that they are nothing new. They’ve been around for decades, if not centuries in some cases, and we are speaking a language that you do not yet know. For example, Hayek proved the impossibility of socialist calculation more than 60 years ago. If you are aware of that, then the silliness of such endeavors becomes immediately obvious whenever you encounter them. This demonstrates another blindness of the Left, as we of the Right have read and know their masterworks, whereas they have literally no clue who has contributed to the foundations of our philosophy, much less what they contributed.

Start with Hayek. Go on to Schumpeter and Mises. Then Rothbard. If you get that far and understand what you’re reading, go back and read Marx. The test is to see if you can do it without laughing out loud.